Page 50 of How Not to Date a Griffin

“Well, you better hurry. First presentation starts in… thirty minutes. See you there?”

Right. They couldn’t very well walk over together, could they? What a scandal it would be, to walk arm in arm—even holding hands, in his wildest fantasies—into the convention where Nolan was supposed to convince them to bulldoze Reid’s business.

“See you there,” Nolan replied.

The room was quiet after Reid left, and Nolan decided promptly that he hated it. He much preferred Reid’s humming and puttering around and opening all the drawers and investigating the nooks and crannies to the silence.

By the time he was dressed properly and slinging his bag over his shoulder to head toward the convention, he was already thinking about Reid. Where they’d go to lunch, if he could even be whisked away. What they might do that evening. Would Reid take Nolan to his place? He thought he’d quite like to see the chaos that Reid most likely lived in.

Nolan shook his head as the elevator beeped at him. He was utterly consumed with thoughts of Reid.

Nolan didn’t know why he was surprised, not when it came to Reid.

God, he couldn’t wait to see him again.

Nolan had thought Reid was joking when he’d asked about having him at the convention, when they’d sorted through Nolan’s clothes and found something appropriate for Reid. He grabbed himself a coffee upon entering the convention’s hotel lobby, deciding a caffeine boost was necessary after all.

It turns out Reid was most certainly not joking.

Not when he raised a hand during the questions portion of Nolan’s presentation.

Nolan cleared his throat, hoping his cheeks weren’t as red as they suddenly felt. “Yessir, what’s your question?”

“Just wondering how this would affect the local economy? Have you considered how your new mega hotel would take out multiple small businesses that serve the community?”

Cheeky little shit.

Nolan loved it.

His father’s eyes bored into him, gray and dark like a storm on the horizon, and even though it suddenly felt a lot warmer in the room, he turned his gaze to Reid.

“In fact, I had… not. Would you like to enlighten us?”

Oh, he hadn’t expected that, Nolan could tell.

Reid stood and adjusted the shirt around his throat — my shirt, Nolan thought with a kick of heat in his gut.

Shit, this was basically foreplay, in front of all these people. His face burned.

Reid’s voice carried as he talked about servicing the lower- and middle-income members of the community, questioning aloud where those people were supposed to go once another multi-million dollar hotel went up. Because why did it stop there? What was to stop them from building a sixth hotel, a seventh, or even a tenth?

The shirt sleeves tightened around his biceps as he talked with his hands, animating the words with his passion.

The thing was, Nolan was really fucking good at telling people what they wanted to hear. He’d been practicing his whole life. So Nolan could have interrupted, could maybe have corralled the room back into his favor by talking about how the hotel did intend to help the community. However, the hotel’s policy hardly had the same impact, when it came down to it, so he simply… kept quiet. As Reid’s speech extended, and other people started asking questions, it turned into a bit of a town hall, with Reid at the center of it.

The longer it went on, the more beet-red his father’s face turned, and suddenly Nolan realized maybe he did have a little power in this situation. His father sure wasn’t prepared for presentations, probably didn’t know half of what Nolan was expected to keep track of. He probably didn’t even remember the hotel’s commitment to the communities they invaded, had hardly been listening when Nolan had sold him the idea based on tax write-offs. He’d agreed only to get Nolan out of his office, more than anything.

So maybe Nolan could help Reid after all.

A few others stood, and Reid was treated to a round of applause from the room. Nolan was fully enamored and a little in love by the time Reid finished speaking.

Nolan was proud of him.

He absolutely sparkled with the victory, and Nolan bowed playfully, conceding to Reid’s very sexy competency.

Nolan got it now. After watching Reid talk with such confidence and surety, maybe he did finally understand what Reid meant by finding Nolan hot.

Because Nolan most certainly was a little more than warm under the collar after watching him command the room.